Civil Disobedience And The United States

In 1773, Parliament aroused the Americans by passage of the Tea Act. This act, designed to help the East India Company by making it cheaper for them to sell tea in America, was interpreted by Americans as a subtle ploy to get them to consume taxed tea. In Boston, in December 1773, a group of men dumped the tea into the harbor.

The American duty requires to use voices, symbols, strength, and intelligence to unite and prosper against an unjust authority. Recently, different organizations continue to express their wants and changes to the government through peaceful protests. Civil disobedience strives to develop in America, however improvement continues to happen. The advantageous duty conveys civil disobedience. With Henry David Thoreau’s pivoting piece about individualism and protesting, Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter towards equal rights and rebellion, the developing civil disobedience continues to fulfill the American society.

At the time tea was the most popular non-alcoholic drink in the world, and consequently, was highly taxed. All tea which was being sent to America was first shipped through England. By the time the tea made it to America, the price was through the roof. In response to the high price of tea, many merchants began smuggling the tea into America and selling it at a discounted price to the colonists. This system worked well until the Tea Act was passed. The Tea Act lowered the import tax on tea, and imposed a small tax on the tea itself. Unfortunately, the colonists did not react as well as the English hoped. Merchants felt threatened by the tax as many of their businesses relied on smuggled tea to turn a profit. The colonists also reacted negatively, believing that Britain was unfairly imposing a tax which they had to right to impose. In retaliation, American colonists dressed as Indians and dumped 342 chests of tea from British merchant ships into Boston Harbour, and again, nine days later in Delaware, colonists dumped over 700 chests. The British, rightly outraged by the actions of the colonists, imposed the Coercive Acts: 1) the King closed Boston Harbour until all the dumped tea was payed for, 2) the Massachusetts charter was annulled, and the governor council was reappointed by the King, 3) the Quartering Act required homeowners

Brilliantly put by what many deem to be America’s greatest president of all time, Abraham Lincoln, “Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children’s liberty.” Civil disobedience is defined as the refusal to comply with certain laws as a form of political protest. Although many may argue that this is the sole way to keep the government in check and to make minorities heard, rational people will realize that it is not this disrespect of the law that proves the democracy of our nation.

Civil disobedience allows citizens in the free society of the United States to express their opinions in a way that is sure to evoke governmental attention, while enlightening the public

The Tea act was extended by the British Parliament in 1773 to reduce the tax on tea shipped to the dependencies. The Act was one of many measures imposed on the American colonists by the British regime. The Act imposed a tax on tea imported to the colonies by a company that Great Britain had set up for that role. That society owned the sole right to import tea to the settlements, so almost all tea consumed by colonists would be taxed. They were so furious that they boycotted tea altogether.

What is civil disobedience? Civil disobedience is the opposing of a law one finds unjust by refusing to follow it and accepting the consequences. So many people have performed acts of civil disobedience from Martin Luther King Jr. to everyday people. But what people did as civil disobedience a hundred years ago is completely different today. It is such an important part of a free society because it helps to define what a free society is, shows the true meaning of freedom of speech, and shows the government that citizens are not willing to follow an unjust law without violence.

Have you ever felt a rule you had to follow was unjust? Have you ever felt your moral instinct tell you not to follow it? Prominent figures in American history, Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau, felt this way and decided to not follow the rules imposed on them by indulging in “civil disobedience”. Civil disobedience is the act of peacefully disobeying laws or customs with the purpose of combating moral injustice. This form of protest has proven to be quite effective in making change in history. In “Civil Disobedience” and the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, both Thoreau and King Jr. write their justification for their actions as well as their feelings regarding the particular disputed

In 1773, the British Parliament passed the "Tea Act", which it wanted to confirm the inviolability of their rights to levy taxes on the colonies. Immediately thereafter in the colonies a broad movement for boycott of tea.

The 1773 Tea Act did cause the American Revolution in that it sparked huge opposition amongst the colonists. It was the third time that the British had tried to tax the Americans — both the 1765 Stamp Act and the 1767 Townshend Duties had been repealed due to such opposition. The Tea Act was the final straw for many colonists — the Sons of Liberty organised a huge protest in which they boarded the ships carrying the East India Company’s tea, and threw £10,000 worth of tea into the sea in defiance. This was known as the Boston Tea Party and demonstrated to the British that the Americans were not willing to accept British taxation. The slogan ‘no taxation without representation’ was frequently used, showing how the Americans felt the British, in trying to tax them, were attempting to impose a tyrannical rule. The Boston Tea Party provoked outrage in Britain, with many of the politically conscious calling for the Americans to be punished. This then led to the Coercive Acts in 1774, which aimed at isolating Boston — although it only resulted in increasing the tension between the

The Tea Act and lack of help from government only caused more resentment towards the British. In 1767, the British Parliament placed duties on several items imported to America. Many colonists considered the taxes illegal and decided to not pay them by boycott. The government stopped all the duties except for imported tea. Parliament passed the Tea Act to help get the East India Tea Company out of financial trouble. This act allowed the company to sell tea in America for a much lower price. Three ships came into the Boston Harbor with 342 chests of tea without planning to pay the middleman tax to the store owners, which allowed them to make some profit due to the high taxes already placed. The colonists were outraged. The governor of Massachusetts rejected the efforts made by the colonists to prevent the tea being unloaded until the full tax was paid to them and they were allowed to buy their tea at the same price as usual. The government leaders did not want the three ships to leave Boston until the tea was unloaded

Civil disobedience and peaceful resistance to laws have instigated within our country, in so many instances, much-needed change. The Boston Tea Party, the Suffragettes, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement are only a few examples of times that civil disobedience has redefined our country. Without peaceful resistance to laws on moral or political grounds, the citizens of the United States would not have many of the freedoms we value.

When disobedience occurs, society feels threatened, but only a few have the heart and courage to encourage it. Oscar Wilde’s claim is that “disobedience is a valuable human trait and that it promotes social progress.” Wilde is right because disobedience can improve a situation or help with social issues.

The famous poet, Thoreau, explains that when a person’s conscience and the law clash, the conscience must always win. Throughout the timeline of America and the world, there has been a pattern of discriminated and suppressed groups of individuals fighting the law and coming out on top. We see a motif in history that says those who peacefully disobey are persecuted and suffer in the short term, but they always prevail in the long run and provide inspiration to others. Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience isn’t uncommon in America, but the modern idea of civil disobedience has become flawed and distorted from its original intent. Currently, there are thousands of causes and ideals that are spastically flung around and just as soon forgotten. This is because the guise of civil disobedience is often abused by people simply to attract publicity. These methods of claimed civil disobedience often do little to nothing in working towards the goal that they claim to stand for, or their intensions are vague and unclear. For example, in the news, the most popular recent controversial example of civil disobedience is the kneeling during the national anthem before a football game. At its manifestation, this movement was intended to protest the inequalities in the treatment of races by the police especially in Chicago. This effectively accomplished nothing. It raised awareness but the majority of intelligent civilians were already aware of the inequalities. The flaw of this example is that the form of disobedience